Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-02-28
CONVICT LABOR.
Report Of Commissioner Of Labor
Wright.

The Commissioner OF Lahore. ID. Wright has sub
mitted his second annual report TO the secretary
OF Interior which he states refers entirely 70 the
subject OF convict labor, and Is based on informa-
ton collected In pursuance OF Joint resolution OF
Congress OF August I'd, 1856 The investigation
conducted by the bureau has reached all penal in
situations OF all grades in the states and territories
mates are in any degree employed In productive
labor.
THERE ARE FOUR SYSTEMS or RNrLoYnRNr
OF convicts in this country, namely: The contract
system, the piece price system, the public account
system and the lease system. The number Of
prisoners OF all grades employed In the institu-
SnS ~ sh sne sSe n sne OF
total number 45,2T are engaged in productive
labor, Is 800 are engaged in prison duties and
are employed under the public account system, by
which the institution buys raw materials and con-
verts them into manufactured articles, which
1870 are employed under the contract
system, under which contractor employs
convicts at a certain agreed price per per
system, under which the contractor furnishes the
material and receives the manufactured article at
an agea piece fb and sns f
convtcts to a contractor for a specified sum and
for a fixed period, the lessee usually undertaking
to clOthe, feed care for and maintain proper dsc-
pine among the prisoners. New York state has
5, 700 convic1s, being the largest number OF any
state, and Wyoming with 8 stands at the foot OF
the list. This prison population OF "a, 900 has a
proportion OF one in thousand to the population
OF the United States.
WHATEVER COMPETITION,
considering the country at large which comes
from convict labor In any form, must come from
this one convict In one thousand OF the pOpula-
ton, but the proportion to those engaged In me
chanical pursuits In the whole country is about
mn
The United States prisoners included In the above
estimate number LAO, and they are distributed
3a4; Michigan, 345; Illinois. l35; Pennsylvania,
"A, &C.
THE INDUSTRY EMPLOYING THE 0R4ATHsT NUMBER
is that OF boots and shoes, the manufacture OF
clothing stands next, then stone. then farming,
gardening, furnitre, mining, lumber and carpet
made and work done on productive labor In the
penal institutions OF the whole country Is $2S 153
999l3. II took 1921 convtcts one year to pro-
free labOrers to have produced the same quantity
OF goods; Or In other words free laborer is equal
to LIT cOnvicts, Or, to reverse the statement one
convict Is equal to 10 OF free laborer. Under
the public account system, the value OF the goods
made is 1422 per cent OF the total product; under
the contract system 62.92 per cent OF the total
cent OF the total product, and under the lease
system 1859 per cent Of the total product. The
total product Of all penal institutions Is "a OF one
Der cent OF the total products OF the Industries OF
the country.
THE COMPRTITI0N NOT sKRIOuS KXCKPT N LOCAL.
tiles.
The report states that it is pretty evident from
Information obtained that the competition arising
from the employment OF convicts, as far as the
whole country is concerned would not of itself
constitute question worthy OF serious discussion.
However locally and In certain industries. the
competition may be serious says the report, and
OF such proportions as to claim the most serious
attention OF legislatures.